(Washington) Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is “immune” in a civil lawsuit over the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the US government says in a court document filed Thursday in court.
Prince bin Salman was appointed prime minister by royal decree in late September, sparking speculation he was seeking to avoid legal risks stemming from claims filed in foreign courts – including a civil suit launched in the United States by Hatice Cengiz , the Turkish fiancée of the journalist murdered in Istanbul.
The latter posted a series of angry messages on Twitter in response: “Jamal died a second time today,” she wrote.
“No one expected such a decision. We thought maybe #US justice would shed some light. But again, the money spoke first,” M insisted.me Cengiz.
The murder four years ago of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi power aide who later became a critic, in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, had temporarily made the prince – nicknamed “MBS” – an outcast in the West.
PHOTO MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
jamal khashoggi
His lawyers had previously argued that Mr bin Salman “sits at the top of the government of Saudi Arabia” and therefore should enjoy the immunity that US courts give to heads of state and other high-ranking foreign leaders.
The US government had until Thursday to give its opinion on the subject, if it chose to give one. Its recommendation is not binding on the court.
“The United States respectfully informs the court that defendant Mohammed bin Salman, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the incumbent head of government and, therefore, is immune from this trial,” the document given to the court reads. instance of Columbia (southeastern United States) by the administration of President Joe Biden.
The text nevertheless adds that “the State Department (US Department of Foreign Affairs) draws no opinion from the present proceedings and repeats its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi”.
This recommendation sparked anger among supporters of Mr.me Gengiz, including members of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a US-based NGO founded by Mr. Khashoggi.
“The Biden administration has overstepped its bounds in recommending immunity for MBS and keeping him accountable,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN. “Now that Biden has declared he has full immunity, we can expect MBS’s attacks on the people of our country to get even worse.”
Agnès Callamard, secretary general of the NGO Amnesty International, called the US government’s recommendation a “profound betrayal”.
The prince, who has been the kingdom’s de facto ruler for several years, served as deputy prime minister and defense minister during the reign of his father, King Salman.
After a relative period of sidelining after the journalist’s murder, he returned to the international scene this year, thanks in particular to the American president, who visited Saudi Arabia in July despite having previously sworn to make the kingdom a “pariah”.
The US government’s recommendation filed on Thursday gave the Saudi leader “a license to kill”, said Khalid al-Jabri, the son of Saad al-Jabri, a Saudi ex-spy who accused the prince of sending a team to him killers in Canada.
“After breaking its oath to punish MBS for Khashoggi’s assassination, the Biden administration not only shields him from prosecution in US courts, but makes him more dangerous than ever with a license to kill his opponents without consequence,” he said.
Last year, Mr Biden released an intelligence report saying the prince approved the operation that led to the journalist’s death. Saudi authorities deny this.
In the civil proceedings at Columbia initiated by Mr.me Cengiz and DAWN, plaintiffs allege that MBS and more than 20 co-defendants, “acting conspiratorially and with premeditation, abducted, bound, drugged, tortured and murdered” Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for the US daily Washington Post.
They demand financial compensation and seek to demonstrate that the murder was ordered by “the top of the Saudi power hierarchy”.